


The one with the failed maths test

by GoldenLunarlight



Category: SKAM (Italy)
Genre: Features a cabin trip with everyone, M/M, and jealous elia, hair dye parties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-22 12:02:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22449307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenLunarlight/pseuds/GoldenLunarlight
Summary: Elia fails a math test and needs a tutor. Luckily, Filippo offers his services and they form an unlikely friendship which might blossom into something more
Relationships: Elia Santini/Filippo Sava
Comments: 4
Kudos: 66





	The one with the failed maths test

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this one in December 2018, then got stuck at a certain passage and changed a few things - I eventually finished writing it in November 2019 and wanted to get it proofread/beta’d because lately I’ve been feeling very insecure about my writing. Plans changed however and I feel like it has been sitting in my drafts for way too long and I want to get it out there. So not beta’d and I hope it makes sense even if certain passages are a bit silly. This was the first time I attempted to write something that was longer than 2k

“My dad is going to kill me,” Elia says dramatically when walking out of the classroom with the rest of the Contrabbandieri. They have received their marks for a maths test they had a few days ago.

“It’s one failed maths test, I’m sure he’ll understand,” Gio places a reassuring hand on Elia’s shoulder.

“Except it’s not the first one anymore.” Elia groans, throws his head back and takes a deep breath. Martino and Gio share a look, pursing their lips.

“Maybe you can get a tutor?” Martino suggests.

“And how would I pay for it? Plus my dad will never agree to that.”

Luca joins them and asks why both Martino and Gio have their arms around Elia. Martino quickly explains, ignoring Elia’s eye-roll.

“Doesn’t that guy who was at your Christmas party study maths at uni? The one with the –“ Luca motions towards his lip and Martino slaps Luca’s shoulder.

“Oh, Filo! Yes! Luca, you are a saint.” Luca smiles, basking in the spotlight of his new title, while Martino turns back to Elia:

“What do you think, Elia? You’ve met Filippo, right?”

“Yeah I’ve met him, doesn’t mean he’ll want to spend his free time tutoring a high school student, who won’t even be able to pay him.”

“I could just ask, okay? If it’s just one time, maybe you could get away with offering him drinks in return.”

“Fine,” Elia lets his shoulder sag, not seeing Martino drop the subject if he refuses.

⁂

Elia doesn’t tell his father about the test. After an uneventful dinner, he goes to his room and checks the messages on his phone. There’s one from Martino and one from an unknown number.

Unknown number (20:37): Hi Elia! Filippo here, maths enthusiast and perhaps your future maths tutor, if you want to we can meet up after school to go over what you don’t understand? (Marti gave me your number)

Elia (21:05): Hi, I can’t pay you though

Elia: sure, where?

Filippo: oh no worries (yet) [I’ll find something 😉]! Can you text me what exactly it is that you don’t understand? So I can prepare some exercises, maybe? Do you want to come to my place? Thursday?

Elia: okay, can you text me the address?

Filippo: sure thing! See you on Thursday

⁂

“I think those are all correct,” Filippo says, leaning into Elia’s space to check the answers.

“You think? Aren’t you supposed the specialist here?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be bad at maths?” Filippo raises his eyebrows.

“I’m not bad at maths as you call it, just this one aspect of it.” Elia glares at him.

“Or you’ve gotten better at it in this last hour because of my obvious expertise on the subject.” Filippo leans back with a smile, waving his hands to show that the statement is as obvious as can be.

“Yeah, that must be it.” Elia chuckles.

Filippo laughs and nudges Elia’s shoulder with his own. He stands up and goes to the hallway. He returns a moment later, waving a packet of cigarettes in the air.

“Do you want to take a break?” Elia nods. He follows Filippo to the balcony, where Filippo goes to sit cross-legged on a rusty chair and offers Elia the other one.  


Filippo takes a drag of his cigarette, blows out the smoke and stares at Elia, his eyes squinted, a mischievous smile on his lips.

“What?” Elia asks.

“I’m trying to think of a creative way for you to pay me for the tutoring. Do you have any secret special talents?”

“Not that I know of?”

Filippo hums.

“I asked Martino to be my photography assistant once, but I feel like it’s uncreative to repeat that, and we don’t want Martino to feel like he’s being replaced, right?”

“Right.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find something even more fun.” Filippo winks.

Elia wants to say something, but they’re interrupted by a noise from inside. A moment later, Eleonora’s head pops in the doorway. If she’s fazed by seeing Elia smoking with her brother, she doesn’t show it.

“How was-“ Filippo starts, but Eleonora shoots him a death glare.

“None of your business. Hi Elia, are you joining us for dinner?”

Filippo questioningly raises his eyebrows at Elia.

“Uh no, I should be heading home soon,” Elia says, already getting up.

Filippo stubs out the cigarette.

“I can drive you if you want.” He offers, but Elia dismisses him with a wave of his hand.

“I’ll just take the bus, but thanks.” Still, Filippo steps behind him to grab his own coat off the hanger.  


“I’ll just walk you to the bus stop then.” Elia lifts one eyebrow and opens his mouth to say that it’s fine, that Filippo doesn’t need to do that. But nothing comes out. Eleonora interferes his thought process,  


“It’s no use refusing, he’s either going to walk with you immediately, or he’ll wait 5 seconds and then follow you. He’s protective like that.” She smiles at her brother.  


“I like knowing that my friends aren’t being beaten up, but thanks for making me sound like a creep.”  


Eleonora shrugs.  


“You worry too much.” Without another word, she disappears into the kitchen. Filippo takes his coat off the hanger and they leave.  


The walk passes in comfortable silence, at least in its outward appearance. Elia considers thanking Filippo for the tutoring, but then he’d have nothing to say when the bus arrives. He doesn’t know if he needs another tutoring session, but he does know that he wants to hang out with Filippo again since he genuinely enjoyed his company. Maybe if they go out next time, he could drop a few hints to Martino to invite Filippo along with them. Only if Filippo would want that, of course.  


“If you need more tutoring, you know where to find me,” Filippo says, placing his hands on Elia’s shoulders.  


“Do you think I need more?” Elia scratches the back of his head.  


“There’s always room for improvement, don’t you think?” Filippo suggests, squeezing Elia’s shoulders encouragingly. He nods towards the street,  


“The bus is there, text me if there’s anything you need help with, okay?”  


Elia pats Filippo’s hands on his shoulder, a hug seeming too soon. Filippo smiles in return. Filippo waits until the bus leaves and they wave each other goodbye.  


⁂  


It doesn’t take long for Elia to text him. There is this one maths problem that he just doesn’t grasp, no matter how many times he redoes it, or checks it on the internet, with or without a calculator. There’s no other way for him than to contact Filippo. The next week, he comes up with another excuse to have another tutor session. With each hangout, they grow more comfortable with each other and they are having more and more fun. Instead of only leaning into Elia’s space to check his answers, Filippo now grabs Elia’s hand to keep it away from the paper. Most of the time, he lets his hand rest on Elia’s when he’s checking the answers and Elia doesn’t mind at all. They still smoke together and Filippo bitches to him about other students in his class. He talks passionately about photography and makes Elia’s eyes light up when he asks him about his day.  


Sometimes they study together and whenever Filippo comes across something he finds interesting, he lightly kicks Elia’s shin and asks him if he wants to hear a fact about space.  


They do still start with revising maths every time and Elia hopes that it will pay off in a couple of days when he has another test.  


There’s one moment that takes it all to a different kind of hanging out. Not just because they’re at Elia’s house for a change, prompted by Filippo being kicked out of his house because Eleonora ‘had some plans that couldn’t involve her brother’. It’s only a week before Elia has another math test, but they’ve long diverted from the subject, talking about their interests instead.  


“Show me?” Filippo makes grabby hands at Elia’s phone, but Elia holds it at a distance, out of Filippo’s reach.  


“Why?” He laughs.  


“Because I want to see what you’re into. I promise I will only look at your music, not at the nudes that you obviously have on your phone.”  


“I don’t have -!” Elia says while leaning away from Filippo, his voice a pitch higher than usual.  


Filippo raises his eyebrows and Elia closes his mouth. He still has to find a way to not subdue to that look, so he hands over his unlocked phone and Filippo starts scrolling through the playlist at once. Elia can’t help but look at his facial expressions, which are even more expressive than usual, ranging from disgust to eye-rolls, to visibly surprised.  


“Oh, this is a good one!” He presses play, stands up and drops the phone on the table. He holds out his hand towards Elia.  


“What?”  


“This is the perfect song to dance to, so we,” he points to himself and then to Elia, “are going to dance.” He doesn’t wait for Elia to get up, instead, he pulls him up by taking both his hands.  


Filippo starts moving his head in time with the rhythm of the song, waiting for Elia to join him.  


“Just do what you do when you go out!” He says after Elia keeps on standing in front of him, not moving at all.  


“There’s not usually a lot of dancing going on when I go out.”  


Filippo rolls his eyes, “Pathetic.” He says between his teeth. He continuous a little louder, with a mischievous smirk: 

“I forgot you’re one of the boring ones, who probably only sit near the walls at parties, drinking, smoking weed,” he pauses, “Looking at all the pretty girls.”  


“Fuck you.” Elia pushes him playfully. Filippo laughs and grabs Elia’s hands again. He sways them between them.  


“You know, girls usually like it when guys dance at parties, so you might as well practice right now,” Filippo says, taking a step back still holding Elia’s hands, he brings them together, and steps closer again.  


“Practice?” Elia raises his eyebrows, he does perfectly fine at parties. Then again, it’s not like the parties they go to are full-on ragers and they do, mostly, sit near the walls (or in the bathroom, away from everyone else), contemplating who the prettiest person in the room is.  


“Yes, dance moves, like two steps, body rolls?” Filippo interrupts his thoughts.  


“Body rolls?”  


“Yes, body rolls.” Then, Filippo moves his chest backwards and just as quickly rolls it forwards again. Elia’s breath gets caught in his throat, the movement of Filippo’s hips in tune with the music setting of alarms inside his head.  
Filippo’s tongue peaks out to flick his lip piercing, 

“Hot, right?”  


Elia’s mouth falls open. He’s only able to nod once.  


“Also, do this next time you’re dancing with a girl.” Filippo holds his arm above Elia’s head, lightly forcing him to twirl, “but then, you know, the other way around.”  


“Like this then?” Elia, now recovered from the initial shock, mimics the gesture and makes Filippo twirl. They end up closer than before, their noses almost touching. There’s a look on Filippo’s face that Elia can’t quite decipher, something between pride and confusion. For a second, it looks like they’re moving in closer, but they’re once again interrupted by a door opening. This time, it’s Elia’s father. He only takes one glance at Filippo and a glimpse of recognition appears, both in Elia’s father’s eyes, quickly replaced by anger and disgust, and in Filippo, and Filippo knows enough.  


“I should go.” He says, and quickly grabs his notes, his phone, and his coat. Without a glance at Elia’s father or Elia for that matter, he jolts out of the door.  


His dad asks him why that guy was in his home. Elia, unaware of the fire burning inside his father, tells him that Filippo has been tutoring him in maths and all hell breaks loose. His father spits out Filippo’s name as if it’s something disgusting he ate. Elia doesn’t know if he’s angry at him for getting extra help for school or if it has something to do with Filippo. He doesn’t see it. His father does not explain,  


“What did he ask of you in return?” His father demands. Elia is taking back by the forceful tone, but answers calmly.  


“Nothing? He’s a friend of Martino, so –“  


“Martino? Of course, I should have known.” His father shakes his head.  


“What’s that supposed to mean?” Elia says before he realizes what he just says. His father’s head whips up and Elia knows he made a mistake.  


“I think it means that I want you to go to your room and think about what kind of people your so-called friends are.” His father says with a flat voice, his eyes cold.  


Later that night, Elia’s phone chimes with text notifications.  


Filippo (20:12): I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to leave like that. I swear I can explain, only I do not know if you’d want me to.  


Filippo (20:15): I hope you understand, or that you will understand, I’m sorry I can’t say more right now  


Filippo (20:16): sorry  


Filippo (20:22): I know your test is next week and I do not doubt that you’ll do great. Good luck, Eli  


Elia doesn’t read Filippo’s texts. Not voluntarily, his phone had still been on the kitchen table while Elia was in the bathroom. His father had taken one look at the text messages and had deleted them.  


The following days pass in a haze, he has no choice but to cram for the maths test on Monday. Elia had come out for dinner on Thursday, expecting his sisters smiling and babbling about what they had done that day, but had found only his father at home, a grim atmosphere filling the entire house. His father tells Elia that his mum came over earlier and Lucia and Giulia decided to go with her for the weekend and since Elia wasn’t home and probably had to study, his dad had told his mum that Elia wasn’t going to join them. Before he can protest- and making the tense situation worse- his father continues and asks Elia for his phone, implicitly stating that he’s grounded.  


He didn’t really have to cram though, because he’s fairly certain that he does understand everything now thanks to Filippo. This also means that, with every exercise that he does understand, he thinks of their weekly hangouts and wonders why Filippo burst out his house without warning.  


On Monday he finds his phone on the kitchen table. It’s fully charged and there are new emails and there are several text messages in the Contrabbandieri chat, but not one from Filippo. In his haste to get to school, he forgets to message Filippo about last Thursday and doesn’t text him until Tuesday, not mentioning anything about what happened. On Thursday, he’s about to take the bus to Filippo’s place when he realises he doesn’t have to anymore. The test is over and knows he did well on it. He turns around and catches up with Luca and Gio who were going to have a FIFA competition. It isn’t until he’s on the bus home that he texts Filippo again.  


⁂  


On Monday, Elia can’t contain his smile when he sees the mark on his test. There’s an immediate urge to get out of the classroom to text Filippo. They’re okay, Elia thinks. Filippo had replied to his text on Friday morning and they had fallen back into their friendship the way it was before last Thursday.  


The second he’s out, he takes his phone out and snaps a picture of his test.  


“Maybe you could frame it as well,” Martino says, “And gift it to Filippo.”  


“Tell us what he says, yeah?” Gio laughs, bumping into Elia. Elia glares at both of them.  


“As if you’re not texting Filippo this second,” Gio adds. “He’s basically all you’ve been talking about these last few days. Filippo this, Filippo that, Filippo smells so good, Filippo has such pretty eyes and so on and so on.”  


“Okay, I get it. As if you didn’t talk about Eva this much.”  


“Ah, but there’s a difference. I was dating Eva, you’re just a boy with a crush.” A smile breaks out on Elia’s face, because thinking about Filippo and hearing the word crush has that effect on him. He has tried to keep his moments with Filippo a secret, but by the third week, the week before that, there was already so much that he wanted to tell his friends. Turns out, they already knew since Elia hadn’t been as subtle as he would have liked when he was texting Filippo during moments when he was hanging out with them.  


There’s a notification and all boys huddle in front of Elia to read the message. It’s a little awkward trying to text with all of them so close to each other.  


Filippo (13:58): and all thanks to …  


Elia (14:00): me actually studying for once  


Filippo (14:01): no? me!  


Elia (14:04): sorry who is this?  


Filippo (14:04): 😒  


The boys are practically cackling reading the exchange.  


“Invite him,” Gio says. Elia looks up from his phone at Gio, to Luca then to Martino and Niccolò.  


“Are you sure?” All four of them nod vigorously.  


Filippo (14:05): No seriously, well done! I’m very proud right now!  


Elia (14:07): :D we’re going out on Friday to celebrate, do you want to join?  


Filippo (14:07): who’s we  


Filippo (14:07): wait don’t answer that  


Filippo (14:08): how about you (yes all 5 of you) come to this party that a friend of mine is throwing instead? No need to bring alcohol since you’re still babies (not including nico since nico is the best)  


⁂  


Turns out, it’s not a small party. It’s in an abandoned warehouse and everywhere they look there are people. It doesn’t seem like it’s their kind of crowd, so they don’t know if they can just walk in. They do know that it’s nearly impossible to find Filippo with all the people walking in and out, so they decide to hang around in the shadows, waiting for Filippo to come to them instead after sending him a text. It doesn’t take long, but before the boys can push Elia in front of them to greet him, they notice that Filippo is pulling another guy with him. Once he’s standing in front of them, the other man attaches himself to Filippo’s back, his arms around Filippo’s waist and his head resting on his shoulder.  


“Told you that you prefer to flock together in the shadows instead of engaging with the world,” Filippo laughs and winks at Elia, “anyway, guys, welcome to the ‘we handed in this big assignment and don’t want to think about education for a week or two and now also the Elia passed his math test because of me’-party, get together, call it what you like.”  


The guy behind Filippo pays no attention to them, instead, he starts leaving kisses in Filippo’s neck and Elia feels sick. It doesn’t help that Filippo brings a hand up to the guy’s head to keep him there. Elia casts his head down, feels a reassuring squeeze on his arms and looks back up. Gio looks pitiful at him, but Elia shrugs and shakes his head. It’s no big deal. It’s not like he had expected something entirely different to happen that night. They follow Filippo into the building, the other guy remaining glued to his side. Filippo and Niccolò disappear to get them drinks and the guy stays with them but says nothing. Filippo hands Luca and Elia their drinks and brings a finger up to his lips secretly indicating not to tell anyone.  


After the guy pulls Filippo away from them (and Elia is getting more and more annoyed at him, since Filippo obviously didn’t care enough about him to introduce the person who’s been attached to his hip the entire evening) Martino and Niccolò disappear into the crowd quickly. Gio follows and Elia and Luca are left alone.  


“I thought you and Filippo had something.” Luca says, leaning in closer to be heard above the music. Elia shakes his head.  


“Obviously he has someone else.” Elia casts a glance at the crowd and he immediately wishes he hadn’t. There’s Filippo, not giving a care about anyone else in the world, except to the guy he’s currently making out with.  


Luca nods, following Elia’s gaze.  


“If you don’t want to stay, I would understand.”  


Elia returns his focus to his friend and can’t believe that Luca is the only one who sees through him. He doesn’t blame the others, of course not. Martino and Niccolò deserve all their time together and since Gio started talking to Eva again after the Argentina fiasco, he seems a lot happier too.  


They decide to walk to Luca’s home, hoping that the drinks they had consumed would wear off by the time they arrived there. They end up on Luca’s balcony, sharing the joint Elia had initially brought to the party to share with all of them. They snap a picture to send to the group chat to let the others know that they’ve abandoned them, but that they’re safe and hadn’t been kidnapped.  


“You look so much better than that guy, Elia.” Luca says after having passed the joint between them a few times. He hands over the joint and Elia looks dumbfounded at him. The moment Elia takes the joint, he makes the mistake of looking into Luca’s eyes and can’t help but snort. They fall into a fit of giggles, instantly trying to shush the other, but failing and starting to giggle again. It takes a while for them to compose themselves, the tears of laughter staining their cheeks and all Elia can still bring out:  


“Thanks, Luchi, you’re the best.” He holds up his fist for a fist bump, but Luca misses and it’s all they need for another giggle session.  
Hours later, Elia is woken up by Luca’s mum walking into the bedroom with two coffee cups, she places one on Luca’s bedside table and hands the other to Elia, who was sitting on the floor next to the bed.  


“Good morning, Elia was it, right?”  


Elia nods.  


“I hope you guys had a fun night, it sounded like you did.” She says with a playful tone.  


Elia sniffs the air and he silently thanks his past self to keep the windows open because there’s not a trace of weed left. It’d be stupid to think that she hadn’t heard their laughter.  


“Listen, I’m glad Luca has you, he’s grown so much in these last months.”  


Elia is about to reply when Luca wakes up.  


“Morning Luca,” She says, “I brought you coffee, and there’s breakfast downstairs.” She leaves with a smile and a nod to Elia and closes the door behind them.  


“Can you please check your phone, it’s been buzzing since 3 am,” Luca asks, dropping back down on the bed. Elia finds it somewhere near the window. There are apologies from the others in the Contrabbandieri and some texts from only Gio.  


Gio (2:58): where are you  


Gio (3:02): pretty sure Filippo just told the guy to leave  


Gio (3:18): whERE ARE YOU  


Gio (3:20): seriously dude  


Gio (3:29): hello Filippo just asked where you were  


Gio (3:44): I told him you left  


Gio (3:46): and he looked upset  
There’s also a text in his chat with Filippo, it’s a gif of a Powerpuff girl looking sad in the rain, sent at 3:34. He doesn’t know what to respond, locks his phone and stands up.  


“Breakfast?” He asks Luca. He forgets about the messages during breakfast. Luca’s little brother joins them and soon abandons his iPad to mingle in the conversation between Elia and Luca.  
When he goes back to Luca’s room to retrieve his stuff, he hears a message arrive on his phone.  


Filippo (10:17): not a powerpuff girl fan?  


The next message is a voice message,  
Filippo (10:36): “I’m sorry about last night, I really did want to celebrate with you, but got caught up - which I am sorry for as well, I didn’t know he’d be there- -feels like I apologize a lot to you-, I realized you won’t need tutoring anymore and that we won’t hang out as much and,”  


Elia stops the voice message. Filippo only sees him as someone he tutored, while Elia for sure thought that they had become friends. Maybe all the touches and glances and the conversation that weren’t about studying weren’t as special to Filippo as they were to Elia. But he couldn’t just drop this whatever they had, he sighs and takes the matter into his own hands:  


Elia (10:38): do you want to grab a coffee somewhere today?  


The reply is fast but brief and Elia cannot decipher the feeling behind it.  


Filippo (10:38): Sure  


Elia says goodbye to Luca, his brother, and his mum and meets up with Filippo in the coffeeshop he suggested. He sitting in the corner, on his phone, two steaming cups of coffee and a pastry in front of him. Elia grabs a seat and Filippo looks up. He immediately slides one coffee and the pastry closer to Elia,  


“I ordered for you, and also, a peace offering.”  


Elia tilts his head, “I’m not angry with you.”  


“Then I take it back.” Filippo brings it closer to him again.  


“Uh, no, you offered,” Elia says and Filippo stops the movement, leaving the pastry in between them. There’s a text chime and another. Followed by three more. Filippo checks his phone, turns the sound off and turns back to Elia.  


“Sorry about that.”  


The sorry sets of a reminder of the text message from earlier.  


“What did you mean by I apologize a lot?” Elia asks instantly, bumping Filippo’s shin with his foot.  


“Huh?”  


“In your message, you said ‘feels like I apologize a lot to you’, but you’ve never apologized to me before,” Elia realizes the way the sentence came out was way more accusatory than intended, even before Filippo raises his eyebrows, “Not that you need to for anything of course, but it sounded serious?”  


Filippo bites his lip, then proceeds to move his lip piercing from left to right for a moment.  


“Remember when we were hanging out at your place and your … dad came home?”  
Elia nods briefly.  


“I sent a bunch of texts after, but you never replied. There were a lot of apologies in them, so I thought maybe I had overdone it?”  


Elia looks into Filippo’s eyes.  


“I didn’t get any messages from you that night.” He takes out his phone and opens WhatsApp.  


“I texted them, not on WhatsApp.”  


“What generation are you from,” Elia mutters and opens the message app. (He suddenly has the image of someone in an attic finding an old box and blowing the dust off of it, that’s how long it’s been since he had opened it). There are no messages from Filippo. Upon seeing that, Filippo unlocks own phone and shows him that he does have messages to Elia.  


“Can I read them?” Elia asks, already sticking out his arm for Filippo’s phone. Filippo shakes his head.  


“They’re unimportant now,” He says, putting his phone in his pocket, “Why did you want to meet me?”  


Elia raises his eyebrows. He doesn’t want to drop this subject since it was obviously important to Filippo, but he has yet to find something to make Filippo open up to him.  


“Because you send me a sad gif and then told me that you thought we weren’t going to hang out anymore, which is obviously, not going to be true.”  


“Obviously?”  


“If you want to of course.”  


Filippo smiles over the rim of his coffee cup. He’s about to nod when his phone starts buzzing, he checks it and sends it to voicemail.  


“Your boyfriend?” Elia asks casually. He could have said ‘that guy who was all over you yesterday which made you ignore me’ but it sounds a little too harsh and too jealous, which he isn’t.  


“My boyfr- Oh, you mean Umberto? He’s not my boyfriend.”  


“You sure seemed comfortable with him.”  


Filippo snickers, “Do I smell a hint of jealousy or is just the coffee that’s so bitter.”  
Elia mimics the sentence and Filippo laughs fondly,  


“Why do you care? The last thing I heard, you’re straight as an arrow.”  


Elia snorts, “Yeah, and arrows bend when they’re shot, what’s your point.”  
Filippo squints his eyes, “Are you telling me you’re not?”  


Elia gives him a confused look,  


“I’m not? I thought you knew? Bi-pride all the way, Sava.”  


“You never told me that!” Filippo’s mouth falls open,  


“It must have never come up,” Elia shrugs with a confident smirk on his face.  


“Never come up? Honey, it’s me you’re talking to, l’uomo gay pride, there’s a pride flag in basically every room at my place, you could’ve slipped it in a conversation on numerous occasions! Hell, I’ve got a freaking pride flag tattoo, would’ve been a great conversation starter, but no, Elia wants to talk about maths with me, super interesting.” Filippo expresses rapidly.  


Elia widens his eyes at his speech, Filippo’s passion for the subject doesn’t surprise him, only the fact that it’s because of him.  


“I’m telling you now, aren’t I? Plus you love talking about maths, so that’s not the worst thing.”  


“No indeed; but now I’ve got to adapt the entire image I have of you in my head, it’s messing everything up.” Filippo drops his head on the table.  


“An image of me in your head? That’s kinky.” Elia laughs, Filippo doesn’t raise his head, only brings up his hands to flip him off. Elia quickly wraps his hands around Filippo’s fingers. The seat that they’re in is hidden from the rest of the customers, so Filippo looks up and twists his hands so that he’s holding Elia’s hands instead.  


“You’re bi,” Filippo whispers, rubbing circles with his thumbs on Elia’s hand palms, “Is this like a recent development?”  


Elia shakes his head, taking his hands out of Filippo’s grip,  


“No, I mean, officially, yes, but I’ve known I wasn’t straight for a while now, just never acted on the liking boys-part,” He explains. Filippo smiles fondly and snickers at Elia’s explanation.  


They’re interrupted by Filippo’s phone once again, the name Umberto appearing on the screen.  


“For someone who’s not your boyfriend, he sure does call a lot.” Elia blurts out.  


Filippo bites his bottom lip,  


“I uh- I’m going to call him back real quick, okay? Just so he stops calling and we can go back to talking about what else I don’t know about you.” Filippo winks, stands up and grabs his phone. Elia slides the pastry towards him and starts eating it, watching Filippo making the call through the window.  


⁂  


Something changes that day. Their texts turn flirtier. Even on that same day in the coffee shop and their walk home, there had been a lot more accidental touches and secret smiles than before. They don’t see each other again until the next week, not until Elia shows up at Filippo’s doorstep at the usual time of their meet-ups. He didn’t think it was necessary to call ahead.  


Someone else entirely opens the door than he’d expected. In a way that Elia didn’t expect either, because right in front of him, is a shirtless guy, only wearing basketball shorts. Elia opens his mouth to say something, but the guy turns his head and shouts into an empty hallway, “Fi? There’s a kid here?”  


Elia raises his eyebrows, he wants to tell him that he’s not a kid and that Filippo knows him by name, thank you very much. But it’s hard to focus when there’s a shirtless guy with defined muscles in front of him, leaning against the doorframe. So no, the bisexuality is definitely not a recent thing. It doesn’t last long until Filippo stumbles into the hallway, one arm halfway through a low cut tank top. Elia’s eyes widen, the combination of a half-naked guy and Filippo putting on clothes doesn’t leave much room for interpretation. He must have interpreted the events of last week completely wrong.  


“Shit, Eli! Hi! I totally forgot I’m so sorry. I have a couple of friends over, but you’re welcome to join if you want?”  


The shirtless guy who had opened the door opens his mouth in protest, but Filippo gives him a stern look and the guy retreats to the room Filippo had come out.  


“Don’t mind him. I’m really sorry, they just showed up and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Do you want to join us? You came all this way.”  


“What are you doing?”  


“Hair dye-party!” Filippo answers with an exciting, smile, “It’s fun, I promise. Also drinking wine and watching a movie.”  


“That’s why you’re…” Elia points to the top Filippo had put on in a rush.  


“Why I’m what? Oh yeah. Hair dye is a bitch to get out of clothes, so no clothes is easier. So you coming or going home again?”  


“I guess I could stay for a while.”  


A smile breaks out on Filippo’s face. He steps aside to let Elia in. Once they’re in the living room, Elia doesn’t know if he made the right decision to stay. It’s, to put it lightly, a mess. There are 7 other people, either sitting on the couch, its armrests or on the floor. Several bottles of wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverages are on the coffee table, next to an assortment of hair dye bottles, abandoned plastic gloves, towels and the television playing in the background for no audience.  


“Guys!” Filippo shouts and several heads look up, “This is Elia, I was supposed to tutor him today, but you hijacked my place, so now I’m letting him hijack our meeting.” He says the last word between air quotes, since it couldn’t be further away from a meeting and drags Elia to an empty spot on the couch. Six people greet him, shake his hand and introduce themselves. It’s only the shirtless guy from earlier who was focusing on the television and ignores Elia.  


“Are you going to continue dying my hair, Sava, or should I just go for the half and half Cruella de Ville look?” A girl with her head half pink, half bleach blonde says.  


“Can’t deny that you’d look great with pink and white hair, right? Like a vanilla, strawberry ice cream.” Filippo jokes.  


“Dye. My. Hair. Filippo. Or I’ll throw your assortment of flower shirts out.”  


“You wouldn’t dare.” Filippo brings his hand to his chest in shock, but sits down immediately behind the girl, in front of Elia, put on plastic gloves and continues to dye the girl’s hair pink.  


“Do you want to dye your hair as well?” Another guy turns to Elia.  


“Uh, no thanks.”  


Filippo looks behind him,  


“Are you sure? I think you’d look great with like … dark blue maybe, like a blue shine, so you won’t even have to bleach your hair beforehand.”  


“Still a no. But good to know. You dying your hair again?” He asks Filippo, nudging him with his knee.  


“Yeah, haven’t decided which colour yet though, do you want to pick one?”  


A chorus of ‘ooooh!s’ echoes in the room and Filippo turned bright red.  


“Red looks good on you, Fi.” Someone says and the others burst into laughter. Filippo gives them his middle finger clad in pink hair dye in return.  


“That’s an honour that befalls not many, Elia. You should pick wisely.” Someone else says solemnly, yet with a hint of amusement in their tone.  


“The pink was fun.” Elia whispers and Filippo turns to him, a soft smile on his face. Then a twinkle appears in his eyes,  


“But I did that already, be more creative.”  


“I’ve known you for like 2 months, how I’m supposed to know what colours you’ve dyed your hair already? What about blue?”  


“There are at least 4 different blues on that table, be specific.”  


Elia reaches for the hair dye bottles on the coffee table and decides on a light blue, and Filippo lets Elia dye his hair for a second, before swatting his hands away and doing it himself. Everyone who had dyed their hair takes turns in the bathroom to wash the dye out and Filippo returns, hair washed and dried, the blue turning out to be more of a turquoise and Elia reaches up to touch it involuntarily.  


After that, the others include him in their conversations and more often than not, they tell stories to Elia about Filippo, which in turn, Filippo tries to halt by putting his hands over Elia’s ears and pulling him against his chest or putting his hands on the mouth of the person telling the story and pushing them away from Elia.  


It gets dark and as a collective, they all get up to help clean up the mess. Filippo locks eyes with Elia and points to the kitchen. He puts the glasses in the sink and then turns around to lean against the counter.  


“They’re a bit much, aren’t they,” He asks Elia who had hopped on the counter when Filippo had his back turned to him. Elia smiles,  


“They sure are something.”  


Filippo takes a step closer, almost standing between Elia’s legs, his hands on either side of Elia’s thighs.  


“Listen, I’m really sorry that-“ Filippo starts, but Elia interrupts him.  


“You know I didn’t come here for maths, right?”  


Filippo chuckles and looks into Elia’s dark brown eyes,  


“Yeah, after last week’s heart to heart, I figured as much.”  


They lean in closer and they’re lips are only hint removed from each other, when they hear the clutter of plastic bottles falling. They swiftly turn their heads to the noise and see the girl whose hair Filippo had dyed pink earlier in the doorway. She’s already crouching down to pick up the fallen bottles, inspecting if they broke because of the fall.  


“I’ll drive you home, Elia,” She says while getting up and putting the bottles on the counter. Elia looks to Filippo,  


“I’ll drive him after you guys leave, you don’t need-“  


She shakes her head,  


“No, Filo, I think it would be best if Elia goes home, right now. I’ll drive him, and then I’ll come back because I think we need to talk, don’t you think?”  


Filippo closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. To Elia’s surprise, he nods.  


“I’ll text you later, okay?” Filippo asks Elia, taking his hand and squeezing it once. Elia nods, not completely understanding the situation, but hops off the counter nonetheless and follows the girl down the stairs and to her car.  


⁂  


“So, you and Fili, huh?” She says after a while of driving in silence.  


“We’re not-“ Elia defends,  


“Maybe not, but you want to be, right?” She doesn’t look at him, turning a corner.  


“Would it be that bad?” Elia has no idea why this girl is so invested.  


“No, of course not. From what I’ve seen and heard, you’d be a great match for him. Just don’t – get too attached. Filippo’s a great guy, but he can be a little intense at times and tends to focus on one thing at a time and it could end up in both of you getting hurt by the other.”  


Of course, Elia wants to say that he’ll never hurt him. But they’re not even dating and Elia first wants to know about the situation with Umberto and the glances shirtless guy had given didn’t give him much courage either. They had almost kissed tonight though, so it’s clear that they both want more than just friendship.  


“Is this your place?” She interrupts his thoughts. Elia replies affirmative and says thanks to her after she parked the car, she smiles and bites her lip, “Talk to him before you get into something serious with him, okay?”  


Elia nods, “Don’t be too hard on him when you go back?”  


“We’ll see, it was nice to meet you, Elia.” She smiles and drives off.  


⁂  


Elia doesn’t ask what Filippo and the pink-haired girl talked about. Probably him. Most definitely him. He knows they should talk though if they want to continue this unlikely friendship and turn it into something more. The night they’d almost kissed, he’d fallen in his bed, not understanding why the prospect of kissing Filippo felt so much more exciting than all the times he’d gone to a party just to make out with some girls. It’s not even the fact that Filippo’s a guy. He got over that a few years ago, it’s just the first time that it could actually turn into something real.  


It’s more knowing that they’re friends and that he loves their hangouts and the conversations they have, both the serious and the playful ones and that it’s possible that it could change if they start dating. He loves the way Filippo sends him random pictures of buildings and abandoned places during the day, sometimes alternated with pictures of insects that landed on Filippo’s hand, accompanied by the caption ‘this u’ or bored selfies in class. Elia mostly sends memes back.  


He’s rereading some of the chat now, waiting for Filippo in a coffee shop, sometimes cringing at the obvious way that Filippo and him are different in certain aspects, but his heart fills when he sees all the hearts emojis and he adores the fact that he can pinpoint the exact moment their yellow hearts changed into red ones. Filippo had sent a morning selfie, shirtless and bed head included and Elia hadn’t thought twice to send back a red heart emoji. Filippo had been just as bold, sending ‘wish you were here’ and Elia had to take a few breaths before he was able to reply with a ‘one day’ and Filippo’s red heart meant even more then.  


The door of the coffee shop opens and Filippo’s blue head pops in, spotting Elia after a quick scan of the room.  


“You didn’t order for me yet?” Filippo says as he approaches him, seeing only one cup of coffee on the table.  


“It’s only because you switch between coffee and tea all the time, so I don’t know what you would want today,” Elia gets up to greet him with a quick cheek kiss. He hears Filippo chuckle,  


“Yeah, that’s about the only thing I switch between.”  


Elia snorts,  


“Is it?”  


Filippo winks, “Maybe, guess you’ll have to find out, huh? I’m going to order real quick and then we can talk, good?”  


The conversation flows easily as usual. Elia decides to bring up the subject in a rather awkwardly, but he doesn’t know how to do it differently,  


“So, Umberto?”  


Filippo raises his eyebrows, urging Elia to continue.  


“What about him?”  


“What’s his deal?”  


“No longer in the picture, next question.”  


Elia’s eyebrows shoot up, that was not the answer he’d expected.  


“As in he’s dead or …”  


Filippo laughs,  


“No dumbass, he was only in Rome for a couple of days anyway. He’s just a friend.”  


“You two seemed quite close that one night.”  


“Okay, we might have been a little more than friends, but not anymore. Not since that night.”  


“What about that guy who was at your place when you dyed your hair?”  


“There was more than one guy there, honey.”  


“The guy who opened the door without wearing a shirt and then spent the rest of the night sulking in the chair, that guy.”  


“Oh, yeah - I don’t like him, but he’s a friend of Greta, the girl who drove you home? So I have to tolerate him,”  


“So nothing to be jealous of?”  


“Were you? That’s cute,” Filippo smiles at Elia, “but no, nothing to be jealous of.”  


“Speaking of Greta, what did she say to you when she came back,” Elia decides to just get it all out in one go. Cards on the table and all that.  


“Sorry, hun, can’t tell, I promised her I wouldn’t. But what would I get in return if I break a promise to one of my best friends?”  


“Uh, me? That should be enough.”  


Filippo holds up his coffee,  


“I’ll drink to that, darling. She said to go for it,”  


Elia’s eyes widen,  


“If you want to, of course, no pressure, just you know, I like you, you like me, we spent a lot of time together and you’ve tried to kiss me,”  


“I tried to kiss you? Fi, you were barely able to contain yourself from the minute we met.”  


“I’m pretty sure it took me a few weeks to get used to your annoying ass, but now it’s one of my favourite things about you.”  


Elia just rolls his eyes as a response.  


“So what do you say, boyfriends?”  


“Congratulations, Elia Santini, you got yourself a smoking hot boyfriend. I really hope you’re good at kissing, or this is going to be a very short-lived relationship.”  


“When do you want to find out?” Elia shoots back, smirking.  


Filippo downs his coffee and checks Elia’s cup,  


“I’m done, just waiting for you to finish so we can get out of this place and go to mine?” Filippo suggests, he knows Eleonora is not home and that there’s one thing Elia hasn’t mentioned in his rapid-fire question asking, so he’d rather avoid bumping into Elia’s dad a second time – third really – for a few moments longer. Especially not since they just got together. They’ll talk about that another time, there are other more pressing matters right now.  


They’re about to walk into the metro station when Filippo grabs Elia’s wrist and pulls him towards the side so they’re not hindering people who have to go inside.  


“You get the choose the location of our first kiss, babe,” Filippo whispers, Elia doesn’t think he’s imagining Filippo’s ears turning a bit redder, “you sure you want it to be at my place?”  


Elia purses his lips, he could suggest someplace romantic. Maybe one of the abandoned buildings Filippo visits regularly. But then Elia shakes his head. He hasn’t had the opportunities to be a romantic sap in his teenage life a lot yet, so he figures the best way to start is now. The perfect location is, of course, the place where they first hung out together.  


“Your place is perfect.”  


Filippo smiles at him and nods.  


Not even twenty minutes later, Filippo unlocks the front door. They kick off their shoes, hang up their coats, Filippo drops his keys on the table, all with exciting smiles shared in between them. Elia’s contemplating whether to go for the extreme romantic option and walk Filippo to the balcony where they’d smoked together for the first time, where they would be surrounded by Eleonora’s plants. Or maybe in the living room, where Filippo’s hands had been on Elia’s a lot of times before and just thinking about it gives him a funny feeling in his stomach. Filippo interrupts his thoughts by shouting his name, already having made his way into the kitchen. Elia walks into the kitchen, seeing Filippo rummaging through the fridge.  


“Do you want anything to drink?” Filippo turns around and is met with Elia standing a lot closer than he’d expected,  


“Hi.” He tries, but there’s not much else possible. Elia’s hands are on Filippo’s neck and he pulls him closer, pressing their lips together. It’s not the romantic, slow-motion walking towards each other. The door of the fridge is still open, they still very much taste like coffee. But somehow, it works. When Filippo chuckles into the kiss before he grabs Elia’s face closer, Elia realises that he wouldn’t have it any other way. Filippo pushes him back into the kitchen counter, kicking the fridge closed with his foot, never stopping the kiss. Elia’s hands remain steady in Filippo’s hair, they’re alternating between just brushing through it and gently tugging, which leads to Filippo smiling and making a soft whimper sound that makes Elia’s weak in the knees. Luckily he has the support of the kitchen counter behind him, but also one of Filippo’s hands on his waist, barely grazing the skin where Elia’s shirt had ridden up.  


⁂  


It's almost midnight when Filippo drags Elia from the couch to the balcony,  


“Was that your first kiss?”  


“With a guy?” Filippo nods, Elia laughs and shakes his head.  


“Nope,” Elia puts his feet up on the tiny table, taking a drag of his cigarette and offers it to Filippo. Filippo raises his eyebrows, “but it’s the first one that mattered,” Elia continues and Filippo snorts.  


⁂  


After a few weeks of them trying out the dating-thing without telling their friends about it, well, Elia’s not telling his friends, he doesn’t know what Filippo does, but he kind of wants to wait to tell them. Not that they would disapprove, but he kind of likes having this for himself. Plus in the last few months, it became normal for Elia and Filippo to hang out without the others, so they’re not asking any more questions than they did before. Giovanni proposes a cabin trip with everyone and to Elia, the trip seems like the perfect time to tell everyone about him and Filippo. Especially since they’re still figuring out how to get to the cabin, and Filippo has a car so it wouldn’t be that weird to offer it to him. He’s about to ask Filippo if he wants to go with them when he gets a text.  


Filippo: Ele asked me if I could drive her to Gio’s cabin this weekend, you & the others going as well?  


Elia: yeah! We’re all going, it’s going to be so crowded  


Filippo: sounds like fun  


Filippo sends a gif of a man sitting at alone at a swing set.  


Elia: [voice message] it sounds like you’re jealous. I was about to ask you if you wanted to come? I’d still have to ask Gio but I doubt he’d refuse - and it’s stupid if you only drive there to drop the girls off, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, no one would, maybe you should ask your sister first, maybe she’ll come up with my genius idea as well  


Filippo: you’re trying to get on her good side, aren’t you 😂 sure, I’ll ask her ❤️  


Elia: ❤️😘  


That’s how they find themselves on the parking place near Niccolò’s house, trying to fit everyone’s luggage into two cars.  


“Shotgun!” Elia shouts when the last luggage is put into Filippo’s car. Eleanora’s mouth falls open,  


“It’s my brother’s car!”  


Filippo laughs, stubs out his cigarette on the ground and opens the driver’s door.  


“Sorry Ele, rules are rules.”  


Eleonora rolls her eyes at her brother but opens the door to the backseat without any more protest.  


Filippo winks at Elia. Sana squints her eyes at the interaction, wondering if it’s a one-time thing or if Elia and Filippo are closer than everyone else thinks. She doesn’t call them out, instead, she stores that information for a later time. Together with Eva and Eleonora, she takes a seat in Filippo’s car, while Federica walks over to Niccolò’s car where Silvia was already waiting with Martino. Luca and Giovanni had chosen to take an earlier bus to get things ready at the cabin for the others.  


“You’re in charge of the music, Elia, don’t disappoint me,” Filippo says and throws his phone in Elia’s lap. Elia takes it, places it on the dashboard and takes his phone out instead. Filippo turns to him with a judging look, but Eva interrupts them by leaning in between the front seats.  


“Silvia made a playlist, she’ll probably ask about it when we’re there, so maybe we should listen to it.”  


“Sounds great, it’s better than whatever this guy was going to play.”  


Elia rolls his eyes, switching his phone for Filippo’s and unlocks it with the passcode without a second thought.  


“Did you just- Nevermind.” Eva starts but leans back again. Eleonora who had been staring outside the window until now brings out her on phone and forwards Silvia’s playlist to Filippo.  


⁂  


They’re almost out of the city when they get stuck in a small traffic jam. They can still see Niccolò’s car driving in the distance, so they know it wouldn’t take long. Filippo checks his rearview mirror to see if any of the girls are paying attention to what was happening in front of them. They are not, Eleonora and Sana looking outside, Eva on her phone, so Filippo drops his hand on Elia’s thigh. Elia, also busy on his phone, mindlessly starts fiddling with Filippo’s fingers. The car in front of them starts moving again, and Filippo returns his hand to the steering wheel.  


They had decided beforehand that the girls would get the bedroom, the boys (including Filippo) would sleep in the living room. It was the only way Sana was allowed to join them on the trip, and the boys didn’t want to ruin the trip for the girls so they agreed on that sleeping arrangement. Upon arriving Martino and Niccolò immediately drop their bags on the couch, making it clear that they’re going to sleep on it. Meanwhile, Elia and Filippo wait until Gio and Luca claim their spot on the ground, so they ‘accidentally’ end up having to sleep next to each other.  


Before everyone goes out to enjoy the last bit of sun of the evening, Eleonora and Eva call everyone together to establish the schedule for who’s in charge of making food during the weekend. It turns into a loud discussion, but it’s shut down when Silvia unrolls a poster with a detailed schedule for the three days. The boys all snort, but after receiving a glare from both Luca and Filippo they huddle together to see what she came up with.  


⁂  


It’s still dark outside when Elia opens his eyes the first time. Still between being awake and asleep, momentarily forgetting where he is, he turns to his boyfriend and sneaks an arm around his waist. Filippo, still very much asleep as his soft breaths indicate, snuggles closer to Elia. It doesn’t take long before Elia falls asleep again.  


The second time, being woken by a snoring Luca, the moonlight casts the room in blue light. Elia immediately knows he won’t be able to sleep anymore, now focusing too much on the noises around him, so he does what every good boyfriend does in situations like this: He starts annoying his boyfriend, hoping to wake up him, so he’d at least have a companion who’s also awake. First, he places a few kisses on Filippo’s neck, but Filippo only lets out a muffled groan. Sneaking his hands underneath Filippo’s shirt, he softly bites the spot between his shoulder and his neck, this awakens Filippo with a yelp.  


“What the fuck are you doing?” He stage-whispers.  


Elia smiles, feigning innocence.  


“Hi.”  


Filippo rolled his eyes, “You’re such a dick,” and places a kiss on Elia’s nose.  


“What time is it?” Filippo asks. Elia reaches behind him to get his phone and presses a button, bracing himself for the brightness.  


“4”  


Filippo turns on his back and places his arm on his forehead, trying to block out all the light.  


“I hate you.”  


Elia laughs.  


“I’m pretty sure you don’t.” He says, sneaking his hand under the covers. Right before he reaches his destination, Filippo catches him and brings his hand up to his chest instead.  


“If you’re were going to jerk me off, I’d rather you don’t do it in a room full of your friends.”  


“They’re sleeping and I won’t be able to touch you for the rest of the day.”  


Elia replies, leaning in closer and trailing a line of kisses on Filippo’s neck.  


“If you just tell them, we wouldn’t have to worry about that.”  


Elia turns away from him, but before he can fully get into sulk mode, Filippo has his arm around his waist and his face next to Elia’s.  


“You know I didn’t mean it like that,” he places a soft kiss right behind Elia’s ear, “Let me make it up to you.”  


“How?” Elia says. Filippo is about to answer when they hear Giovanni mumble something, they momentarily freeze, but they can’t make out what it was and after a few seconds, they dare to breathe again.  


“Come with me.” Filippo gets up, trying to make as little noise as possible. Failing very hard when he starts rummaging through his bag at the end of their makeshift bed.  


“What are you doing?”  


Filippo only brings up his finger to his mouth to shush him and then reaches out his other hand to pull Elia out of the bed as well. With their hands locked together, Filippo walks to the bathroom.  


Once inside, Filippo closes the bathroom door as quietly as possible, locks it and turns to his boyfriend.  


“What did you take out of your bag?” Elia asks him curiously.  


Filippo holds up a travel-sized bottle of lube and a few condoms. Elia chuckles.  


“Well, someone thought this through.”  
Filippo smiles and amusingly widens his eyes.  


“Yeah, see, I’m the adult here, I have to be responsible.” Elia takes a step closer.  


“It all depends on what you plan on doing with them.”  


Filippo places the items on the sink and grabs the hem of Elia’s shirt instead.  


“Oh babe, I think you know.”  


⁂  


When they reenter the hallway, they can see that the sun is already starting to rise.  


“No visible hickeys?” Filippo stretches his neck.  


Elia shakes his head,  


“I think you have a bite mark or two on your shoulder though, sorry.”  
Filippo wiggled his eyebrows,  


“You’ll probably have bruises on your hips, so …”  


They stare at each other for a second with a loving smile on their face.  


“Anyway, coffee?” Elia asks and Filippo nods.  


“Let’s make breakfast, the sun’s coming up anyway.” Filippo offers once they reach the kitchen, Elia points to the poster with the schedule.  


“Are you sure you want to mess with the schedule, Fi? And face the wrath of Silvia?”  


Filippo throws a towel at him in response.  


⁂  


There isn’t much room to do anything inside the house, so they all move to the lake. The boys immediately toss their shirts in the sand and run into the lake, while the girls find a place in the shade to relax. Filippo, aware that the bite mark on his shoulder is still very much visible joins the girls instead.  


“Why don’t you join them?” Eleonora turns to her brother, who’s checking the settings of his camera. He takes a photo of his sister and drops the camera in his lap.  


“Afraid I’m going to learn things about you that I don’t know already?” Filippo asks her.  


“Like what? You have a way of finding out everything, it’s no use trying to keep things from you.”  


“Like that guy who was in your room the other day?”  


Eleonora’s eyes grow wide and she shakes her head. It’s enough for Filippo to know to drop the subject, he might like gossip a lot, but for once he smart enough.  


“I just thought you’d want to hang out with them, instead of us. They’re your friends as well, aren’t they?”  


“Just because Martino and I are both gay doesn’t mean that I’m friends with the others.”  


“They’re the ones who invited you on this trip, they’re your friends, Fili.”  


“They’re people I know and you all needed a second ride.”  


“If the boys only wanted –“  


“Speaking of boys,” Silvia interrupts them, “I think someone had sex in the bathroom last night.”  


Federica raises her eyebrows.  


“And how would you know that?”  


“I had to pee, but then I heard people in the bathroom, so I went back to our room.”  


“And you didn’t pee?”  


“No, I was in shock, I totally forgot!”  
Filippo sucks in a breath. If Silvia had gone into the living room, she would’ve seen the empty spots where Elia and he were supposed to be sleeping.  


“There is a couple with us, so it wouldn’t be that weird,” Eva says, sneaking a glance at Eleonora.  


“But still! Maybe we should tell them that it wasn’t okay that they did that in the bathroom, that we all have to use!” Silvia shoots back.  
“Maybe we shouldn’t make a big deal out of this and just let it go?” Filippo adds quickly, snapping a photo of Silvia who crosses her arms and pouts.  


“It’s not okay! It’s unhygienic, we all still have to use it!”  


Federica places a hand on Silvia’s shoulder,  


“No, it isn’t. But as Filippo said, let’s not make a big deal out of this, okay? It was to be expected. If you were in a relationship on a trip with just your friends you probably would’ve done the same, I know I would,” Eva nods along to Federica’s words, but Silvia only scoffs. Filippo fidgets with his camera, not noticing the look that passes between Eva and Sana, both of them remembering the car ride. It’s at that moment that Elia walks over to them, stopping right behind Filippo, letting water droplets fall on top of Filippo.  


“Will you join us? We need one more to make teams of 3,” He puts his hands on Filippo’s shoulder, lightly pressing where he knows he bit him earlier this morning. Eva stands up and dusts some of the sand off her clothes.  


“How about we make it teams of 5?”  


That’s how they end up having a volleyball competition, which turns into a dodgeball competition because none of them like losing. At one point Silvia asks Luca to go back to the cabin, which shocks everyone around them, but they return a little while later with a picnic basket and everyone starts breathing again. They stay at the lake for the remainder of the day, sometimes getting up for a swim, but mostly just lounging and talking. Giovanni brings out his guitar, and Eva, Sana, and Federica take turns requesting songs to sing along too. Filippo takes a few candid photos of them until they notice and everyone else joins in the frame to make silly faces, which Filippo gladly photographs as well. Elia offers to take some with Filippo included, but Filippo spots his sister eyeing the interaction, knowing that he never lets her touch his camera. And he likes Elia, of course, he does, but giving him his camera is a whole other level of commitment that he’s not ready for so he brushes the offer away, coming up with the “I prefer to be behind the camera”-excuse. Elia mumbles something about a selfie,  


“You want a picture with me? That’s cute.”  


“It’s more so you’d have one to keep next to your bed.”  


“Why would I need a picture if I have the real thing?” Filippo says before he realizes. Elia turns bright red and looks around if anyone had heard it. Filippo moves closer and whispers:  


“Would it be that bad if they know?”  


Elia bites his lip, no, it wouldn’t be. Elia wraps his hand around Filippo’s neck and presses their lips together. Filippo is stunned for a second but smiles into the kiss.  


“It was you!” Silvia shouts interrupting them, while all the boys start high-fiving each other. Surprising everyone one when Martino high fives Eleonora.  


“Going from hanging out at the kitchen table to your bedroom wasn’t as subtle as you thought, Filo.” Eleonora shrugs and Filippo’s mouth falls open, pointing to his sister while addressing Elia.  


“Murdered by my own sister, can you believe?”  


“You’re way too dramatic,” Elia rolls his eyes, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and kissing his temple.  


“You fell for it though.”  


The day continues, now with more teasing directed at Elia and Filippo. Silvia hasn’t stopped murmuring under her breath since the kiss and Federica goes to talk to her, but instead of repeating her tirade about their hook-up in the bathroom.  


“I just can’t believe Elia got a boyfriend earlier than me,” upon hearing that, Luca’s ear prick up, just a second away from raising his hand and chanting “pick me, pick me!”  


⁂  


After Filippo drops Sana and Eva off at their respective homes, his sister asks him to drop her off somewhere, ensuring him that she’s old enough to know what’s she doing. Then it’s just him and Elia in the car and he wonders if he’s too presumptuous in assuming Elia’s staying with him for the night. Unknowingly, Elia breaks that expectation with his next words:  


“Can you drop me off at my place?”  


Filippo nods, hiding his disappointment, bringing their intertwined hands to his lips.  


“Then text me some time tonight?”  


“You know my dad’s not the devil reincarnate, right? He doesn’t like having people he doesn’t know in his house, that’s all.”  


“You know you’re dad’s a cop right?”  


Elia nods, confused as to why that’s relevant now.  


“I might have … gotten arrested a few times before? Nothing big or anything, but you know I like being at the forefront of certain protests, right?”  


Elia nods again, “So I’m dating a criminal?”  


Filippo drops Elia’s hand and flips him off, “I think that’s what your dad thinks.”  


Elia looks at Filippo for a second, biting his lips trying to hide a smile but then bursts into laughter.  


“I don’t see how that’s funny, but-“  
Elia holds up his hands to let Filippo know that he’s going to explain, he just needs to laugh for a little while longer.  


“This is a disturbing image, but what you’re basically saying is that my father has put you into handcuffs earlier than I have?”  
Filippo’s eyes widen and he pushes Elia’s shoulder.  


“What the fuck, Elia, why would you say something like that!”  


“But it’s the truth!”  


Filippo drops his head on the steering wheel, “I hate you so much right now.”  


Elia’s still giggling, running his hand through Filippo’s hair.  


“I’m sorry, babe, but look at it from a different light, at least you’re used to being in handcuffs-“  


Filippo abruptly turns again, “If you think I wasn’t already before that, you’re the one in the wrong here, Santini.”  


Elia’s eyes light up and Filippo wraps his hands around Elia’s neck and pulls him closer. He kisses him quickly,  


“Thank you for inviting me.”  
Elia answers by kissing him again, pulling him closer.  


⁂  


Elia waits until he can’t see Filippo’s car anymore before opening the door and going up the stairs. Before he fully unlocks the door, it swings open and a little hurricane wraps herself around his leg.  


“Lu?” If Lucia’s here then his mum must be here as well, that suspicion immediately confirmed by the woman stepping into the hallway.  


“Hi, Elia.”  


It’s been way too long since he’d seen her, somehow never being at home when she is visiting, because he tends to avoid his own home as much as possible since his parents’ divorce. With the little hurricane still wrapped around him, he takes three big steps and is engulfed in his mother’s flowery perfume.  


“I’m happy to see you, honey,” She says putting her hands on his cheeks, “when your father said you were on a trip with your friends I was afraid I was going to miss you again, but then he said something about a boy?”  


“Dad doesn’t-”  


“I know, Elia, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t love to meet the person who makes my son happy, so how does dinner tomorrow sound? I already bought everything. Has he met your sisters yet? Giulia’s taking a train tomorrow morning, so she should arrive right before dinnertime, knowing those damn trains.”  


“Here?” Elia squishing his eyebrows together.  


“Of course here, I talked to your father, Elia, he’s agreed to keep work and personal life separated, so if your boyfriend decides to get arrested again, there are keys in the closet in your father’s bedroom.”  


“I don’t want to know how you know.”  


His mum kisses the top of his head, “The handcuffs are in the bedside table.” She giggles. Elia turns bright red, letting his mum go.  


“Mum! Now I’m not sure I want you and Filippo in the same room.”  


“Awh, my puppy, now I want to meet him even more, so invite him for tomorrow, or I will.” She raises one eyebrow, expecting him to do it right now. So he obeys and takes his phone out of his pocket and opens the conversation with ‘Filo 🦩’  


Elia (21:36): How does dinner at my place sound tomorrow?”

**Author's Note:**

> Please consider leaving a comment or come talk to me [@ my tumblr](https://elippo.tumblr.com/ask)


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